It may seem stupid to ask but
Do I need to stick the disk in for the new camera(driver)
I have a USB thing to download from the fuji camera (via hardware wizard and windows), and the lumix has USB as well for downloading to PC. Can I try it before I put the disk in, or will it damage anything?
I am just trying to avoid extra MB's on the PC thats all.
i.e. Will one programme do for both?
Does anybody know.
Go ahead and try. You'll never harm anything. You can likely still use Windows Camera wizard but the disk may have some things on there you might want. I say go ahead and install it. If you find you don't need whats on it then uninstall.
You can usually just plug your camera in via USB and the computer will recognise it as a mass storage device. It usually assigns a drive letter and you can browse it just like you would another folder on your computer.
It's easier if you have some sort of software to transfer the files to your PC though. Windows comes with a Windows Camera Wizard as Peto said, but I find it not very intuitive...
I use the software that came with my camera to transfer pics (Nikon Pictureproject) because it allows me to set up the file name format and directory name format (you can use the date as part of the file name and stuff like that) to transfer my pics. Just a bit more flexibility I guess...
At the moment, when I plug in the Fuji camera, I get a small windows box which asks "what do I want to do" (Transfer to a folder on PC) (Open to view pics)and about 3 other options. If I take the first option another wizard opens, and eventually I get all the thumbnails with the option to select or not. It then put selected items on to a folder on my Pc wherever I have decided I want them. (my docs-- NTs Jan Pics--file name) Which I can alter in windows after. I use PS then if needed. Some of the software that comes with the camera is a bit low key stuff.
I could use Irfanview or similar for renaming batches if required. I suppose the Nikon prog does something similar.
Anyway I have just missed the postman(9.00am), so I have to wait 6 hours now, until I can collect the sd card. Which ain't bad as I only ordered at around 4.00pm yesterday. (valuemedia)
Oh and one more thing - PictureProject seems to be able to auto rotate the photos for me using the orientation EXIF tag recorded by the camera. I find this really handy and it doesn't do it when I just straight Windows-copy or transfer it using other programs like Picasa. Saves a bit of time and effort I guess...